Dennis Prager Show - Self Esteem is Rooted in the Moral
Aired: 2024-10-31
Duration: 03:05


=== California's Self-Esteem Experiment (03:05) ===

[00:00:00]  Before you were born, well before the self-esteem movement was created, I think it was in the 1970s, in California, naturally.
[00:00:13]  Yeah, shocking.
[00:00:13]  I even remember who did it.
[00:00:15]  For some reason, I can't forget his name.
[00:00:18]  He was a California state senator.
[00:00:20]  He has since passed away.
[00:00:22]  John Vasconcelos.
[00:00:25]  This will fascinate you.
[00:00:28]  Because most people don't know the origins of the self-esteem movement.
[00:00:31]  It started in California.
[00:00:33]  The state of California gave a certain amount of money to explore the self-esteem roots of crime, which sounds great, but as soon as it happened, I knew it was stupid.
[00:00:53]  What they really were saying is, Poverty causes crime.
[00:00:57]  Racism causes crime.
[00:00:58]  And now they were adding a third one.
[00:01:00]  Low self-esteem causes crime.
[00:01:02]  By the way, poverty is a lie.
[00:01:04]  Racism is a lie.
[00:01:05]  Not that poverty doesn't exist.
[00:01:07]  It's a lie that causes crime.
[00:01:09]  And low self-esteem.
[00:01:12]  Roy Baumeister, one of the greatest criminologists in American life.
[00:01:16]  Professor of criminology.
[00:01:18]  Psychologist.
[00:01:20]  He spent his life with criminals.
[00:01:22]  I mean, murderers.
[00:01:23]  Right.
[00:01:24]  He said to me on my show, Dennis, the people with the highest self-esteem I have ever counseled are murderers.
[00:01:35]  So related is the high self-esteem.
[00:01:44]  So you and I have high self-esteem.
[00:01:48]  It's obvious from what you said.
[00:01:50]  But there's a very big difference.
[00:01:53]  Our self-esteem is morally rooted.
[00:01:58]  I like Dennis when he does good.
[00:02:03]  I don't like Dennis when he doesn't do good.
[00:02:07]  I would feel so holly.
[00:02:08]  That's the point.
[00:02:09]  I would feel like a cheat.
[00:02:10]  So your self-esteem would go lower if you cheated to get a disability note.
[00:02:19]  Yes.
[00:02:22]  Vast numbers of people, it would not work that way.
[00:02:25]  If I can get a doctor's note to get on Southwest faster, to have more time taking an LSAT, then damn it, I'm going to get that note.
[00:02:34]  And their self-esteem does not sink.
[00:02:37]  Yes, yes, it's an excellent point.
[00:02:39]  Self-esteem, oh, it's everything.
[00:02:41]  If self-esteem is rooted in the moral, in other words, I have to earn my own self-esteem.
[00:02:50]  You know earn is one of my two favorite verbs.
[00:02:53]  So I have to earn.
[00:02:57]  That's how I feel.
[00:02:58]  By the way, I believe I have to earn God's esteem.
[00:03:02]  Well, that's another thing that I thought of.
[00:03:04]  What would God think of me?